Oboist With 'Sensual Sound' Impresses Muhlenberg Crowd Concert Review

January 10, 1987|by DAVID M.GREENE, The Morning Call

The Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra officially began the new year with a concert last night in Muhlenberg College's Centre for the Arts before the usual overflow audience. The conductor was, as usual, Donald Spieth, and the featured soloist was oboist Bert Lucarelli.

Oboists are not that common as headliners. Lucarelli has held, and holds, a number of prestigious posts, but in recent years has appeared with increasing frequency as soloist, both in concert and on records.

A broader public knows him from an LP called "The Sensual Sound of the Soulful Oboe," sold via one of those catalogs that appear regularly in the mail, with a blurb that assures you that Lucarelli is "guaranteed to keep you awake all night - making love."

Perhaps so, but he is in any case a splendid musician. He was best showcased in Ralph Vaughan Williams' Concerto for Oboe and Strings, which began the second half of the Muhlenberg program.

Oddly, this work was played here by other forces earlier this season. That performance made this writer wonder why he had ever liked the piece.

Lucarelli, Spieth and the LVCO strings showed him why. The first movement, a sort of rhapsody for the solo instrument against a gentle murmuring of the strings, is pure English pastoral, evocative of light and shadows on the downs.

After a curious little minuet, the finale begins as a sort of waltz, then moves into those dark modal harmonies so typical of the composer, and ends with a lovely soliloquy for the oboe. It brought the house down.

Earlier, Lucarelli was joined by the LVCO's very own Scott Knipe in Albinoni's Baroque concerto for two oboes, strings and continuo. The two artists, twining their melodic lines around each other, were virtually indistinguishable and sounded lovely.

Albinoni was obviously inspired by thoseshepherds who appeared in Italian cities at Christmas playing reed instruments and collecting tips.

Another winner was Andre Caplet's orchestration of Debussy's "Children's Corner," originally for piano. Caplet was himself a talented composer whose career was crippled by his gassing in World War I. He knew Debussy's style thoroughly and composed these charming pieces with imagination and color, which the orchestra captured magnificently.

The program opened with a reading of Beethoven's "Coriolan" overture that sounded fully symphonic, though the familiar theme seemed unusually slow. It closed with a light-footed and smiling rendition of Haydn's familiar "Surprise" symphony.

David M.Greene is a free-lance classical music reviewer for The Morning Call.